Improved whip-socket



r THEOS. WEAVER, OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

lMPROVED WHIP-SOCKET.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 57,603, dated August 28, 1866 antedated August 13, 1866.

specification, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of the socket with the butt of whip locked fast. Fig. 2 isa longitudinal section of the socket-tube and the locking-thimble. Fig. 3 is a bottom View of the lockiug-thimble. Fig. at is a top view of the locking-thimble. Fig. 5 is a top view of socket and thimble. Fig. 6 is a horizontal section of the neck or swell of the socket. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the key.

1 construct my safety'socket, of metal or any other suitable material, in two essential partsnamely: the socket-tube, either in one or two pieces, and the locking-thimble.

Both the tube and the thimble are provided with a lunar or crescent disk at their upper ends, H on tube and B on thiinble, as is shown in Figs. 1 and 5.

The socket-tube has a swell or widened chamber, as is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, which the crescent H partly closes at the top. In this chamber is the closely-fitting thimble, whose upper cross-section is also partly closed by the crescent B, and is of such height or depth as to iill the cavity in the swell of the tube beneath the level of the disk H, as shown in Fig. 2.

The locking-thimble has an abutment, D, (shown in Fig. 2,) beneath which is aside cavity, in which are attached and operated the springs R R R, as shown in Fig. 2. Between said abutment and the inner surface of the socket-tube is a key-hole, as-shown in Fig. 5, indented into the abutment. The abutment D, Fig. 2, being deep, and the springs R R R, which may be increased in number, being only approachable through the key-hole, renders the lock secure but to render it still more secure the ward of the key (shown in Fig. 7) is long, so that no key of short ward can tumble all the springs at the same instant, which is necessary before the locking-thimble can be revolved in its chamber.

The springs R R R, Fig. 2, falliuto the notches X X X X in theinner surface of the chamber of tube, and hold the thimble in place at various degrees of its revolution, in order to impinge the cresceuts H and B against whipstocks ofdift'erent sizes, the taper and lower knob on stock preventing its removal from the socket when the thimble is thus locked.

When the whip is to be removed or the socket is to be prepared for use in driving, the thimble is revolved back until the springs fall into the notch X. (Shown in Fig. 6.) The shank of the key there and then comes into a keyguard in the crescent H, fitting so closely against the curve that the key will not pass up or cannot be lost in driving, while at the same time the crescent B, as shown in Fig. 5, lies beneath or is concentric with the crescent H, as shown in Fig. 6, thus forming a free socket of a gibbous aperture for general use. The short side of this gibbous aperture in the thimble forms a wall down to the neck of the socket-tube, thus rendering the lock secure from picking on the inside.

The socket is firmly attached to thevehicle, and when the socket-tube is made of two parts the parts are grooved together, as shown at o c, Fig. l, and clasped by a band, E, which, being riveted together at its ends, is itself riveted to the vehicle.

The nature of my invention consists in diminishing the area of the crosssection of a whip-socket by means of rigid disks interposed between the walls of the socket-tube after the butt of the whip has been inserted, and so securing said disks between the two lower bosses of the whip that the whip can only be removed by means of a key or equivalent instrument when the socket is locked, and that for general use in driving the said disk can be readily removed, thus opening the socket, and at the same time secure the key from jostling out or being lost.

The object to be secured by this socket is to prevent whips being stolen or tampered with when the driver has occasion to leave the vehicle and does not find it convenientto carry the whip with him.

I claim- 1. The interposition of a rigid disk or disks between the inner walls of a whip-socket tube,

so as to lock in it the butt of a whip-stock,

that it cannot be removed without the use of 3. The combination and arrangement of the a key or other equivalent instrument, subsubjects of the second claim, when the thimble stantially as herein described. is so operated by the key shown in Fig. 7 as 2. The construction of the lockingthiinble, partially to open or close the gibbous aperture as shown in Figs. 2and 3, with the crescent B, of the tube, substantially in the manner and I springs R R R, and key-hole C; also, the coni for the purpose as herein shown and explained. struction of the thimble-chamber, as shown in I THEOS. WEAVER. Fig. 6, with the crescent H and notches X X Witnesses: a X X X, and key-guard O, substantially as G. A. SNYDER, herein set forth. M. K. MORRIS. 

